As part of a move to reduce its environmental impact, the 43-staff Newthorpe-based company decided to dispense with the traditional ink cartridge delivery system for its litho presses and install a new ink pumping system, supplied with 200kg CMYK barrels, in a three-year deal with global ink manufacturer Flint Group.

Production director Jamie Gilbert said: “We wanted to reduce plastic use and our customers are looking increasingly at environmental credentials, and when we looked at the full picture and I spoke to Flint about it we realised this was something we could really make a change with."

The business partnered Print Room Services to remove existing ink lines from its three Heidelberg presses: an eight-colour Speedmaster XL75, which was installed last year, and two CD 74s, an eight-colour and 10-colour, and retrofit the pumping system to each press.

The system, which took six months to plan and execute, cost £52,000 in total and was installed four weeks ago. Each barrel lasts approximately one and a half weeks supplying all three presses and according to Gilbert saves around 25% a years on ink costs and will reduce single-use plastic waste from inks by 80% annually.

Gilbert added: “A lot of people are making the change now. It makes sense environmentally and the printers love it, they find it a lot easier and it saves a lot of time.”

Hickling & Squires has a broad customer base including a number of colleges and universities and offers a wide range of products such as brochures, flyers, playing cards, wallets, POS, posters and banners.

The £5m-turnover company also runs a Xerox Iridesse since 2018, the first to be installed in the UK, alongside a raft of other Xerox kit and some wide format and finishing devices.

In April 2017, Gilbert, alongside sales director Lee Jordan and commercial director Steve Seddon took over the day-to-day running of the business from long-term owners Paul White and Richard Wells.